


Comfort

by surroundedbyvultures



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 07:07:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/910346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/surroundedbyvultures/pseuds/surroundedbyvultures
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the late hours of the night, Zoey still suffers from horrible memories of the Blackrock destruction but perhaps some comfort will be available in the form of her master, The Enderborn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comfort

The small wooden house creaked and groaned as it settled into its predetermined frame.

  
Zoey built the crooked house after her first night back from her chronic stay at Sick Bay. Her determination set upon her brow as Rythian shouted at her from the ground, begging for her to stay with him in the snug tent while she protested. The protests seem sudden and strangely placed as they had slept in the same bed on numerous occasions but he had an idea of where they had come from.   
Her first night was a shaky transition. She constantly screamed at the sound of Teep's newly found gun, breaking the dead silence and peace of the night and she awoke with startles and strangled sobs. Her behavior kept her master up at night, trying to soothe her and break her out of the nightmarish reverie but she just sobbed harder and harder and struggled to make apology after apology to Rythian.

She felt terrible seeing the sleep-deprived mage try to accomplish the simple task of crafting her morning bread from locally grown wheat, so she decided to ease his burden by taking a hammer and the few wooden planks she has scrounged from the half dead trees around the desert and built the shack.

  
But although she built a wall between her and her master, the apprentice couldn't overcome her nightmares and continued to suffer from them for the following weeks. But unbeknownst to her, the mage still continued to suffer from the insomnia, laying there and listening to her cries until tonight.

  
He heard the sobs drift slowly down the hall and permeate the pregnant silence. It started out as sniffles and little mewling noises before he could hear the tears start to break the dam and overtake the surface of her entire face.

  
The mage shuffled his on the pillow to look at the clock but in the thick ink of the night, all he could make out was the slight gleam of gold from where the redstone inside penetrated the thin seams of the device. It was early morning, that he was sure of. He rubbed his weary eyes and concentrated on the dark. He knitted his eyebrows in frustration as he waited for his eyes to adjust to the dark. While he was Enderborn, he still maintained some human attributes and this was one that he thought was the most annoying.

  
But this thought was interrupted as the girl's mewling turned into heaving wails. The nightmares seem to come from nowhere and yet everywhere at all.   
'Of course she would be upset.' Rythian muttered to himself. His chest tightened as he heard each desperate gasp for air, her choking as the motion abruptly altered her throat and clogged nose, making her sobs temporarily stop and strangle her despair.

  
_What do I do?_

  
He struggled with the options that were presented to him although there weren't many. He couldn't even imagine how to approach her delicately and without upsetting her further. But worse was the possibility of her rejection of him. This was what made him keep his distance although it was apparent to both parties that each other felt the same but he still had his reserves about the attachment and fondness he felt towards her.

  
Her sobs reached his ears again and made his head pound and his stomach queasy at the sound.  
'I can't take it anymore,' he half-whispered at the ceiling. He pulled the covers off of the humble handmade bed and went for his door.

  
His hand hovered over the knob as he heard the sobs lull. _Maybe she's okay now and I'm doing this ridicul-_ , his thought died as he heard her hiccuping and whimpering. He grasped the door knob and turned its handle, listening to the deafening click, signaling his exit. He peeked out into the hallway, soft orange light poured out of the room down the hall. The door was frighteningly ajar and almost summoned him to the poor girl's room.

  
But something in him hesitated again and her sobs reached a resounding volume in the hallway. He noted that it was unbearable to listen to the wails in the hall, their clamor bouncing from wall to wall and jumping around in his skull. He swallowed the lump that emerged in his throat and carefully made his way down the hall.  
His feet made soft puffs on the sand-covered birch wood planks as he tread closer to the light. Her sobs had stopped as he hovered in the doorway, making a dim shadow upon her bed.

  
"Rythian?" she called as the shadow crept closer. The redhead girl lifted her head and set her gaze upon the mage's pair of dark glowing eyes. Her face was red and blotchy and her nose was running clear mucous as the tears still threatened to make their landing on her red wool blanket from their perch on her chin.

  
But she was still beautiful. The light brown freckles on her cheeks were made more visible through the cheeks' damask and the green in her eyes were even more striking in the dim light of a nearby torch although they were swollen and red. And her hair seemed like a blood red ocean, making waves upon her damp cheeks and some strands making their home upon the tears that were settled upon her face.  
Rythian released a breath that he wasn't aware of ever being held as Zoey wiped her eyes with the back of her one human arm with a struggled smile.

  
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you but Ringo told me a funny joke earlier and I just remembered it and it left me laughing so hard that I-"

  
"Don't," he said with his gaze broken and was now connecting with the ground. "Please don't."

  
Zoey's expression turned suddenly into surprise, the tears springing from her worn eyes as she stared as the mage.

  
"Don't what, Rythian?" she asked curiously, her voice straining against her thick coated throat.

  
His shoulders shuddered briefly and she could hear a sharp jagged exhale. "Don't-" he choked as his lifted his eyes, revealing that they were pinpricked with lavender tears and his scarred lips quivered slighty. "Please don't make a story for me because I jus-" the sentence broke off as he choked back a cry, forcing himself to make eye contact with the floor.

  
"Rythian... I'm... I'm not sure what you me-" Zoey struggled to complete the sentence as new tears started pouring down her cheeks. She never intended to hurt Rythian and she certainly never wanted Rythian to know about the nightmares she had been having since the nuclear explosion at their old home.

  
Her newfound composure broke as she stuffed her face into her hand and began sobbing again. She couldn't believe that she had made Rythian cry. Her chest heaved as her sobs created a strangled apology against the stillness of the room. Her voice broke at every other word and her sobbing turned into screams as she removed her hand from her face and started punching her mattress. With every pound of her fist and the dull thud, she was insulting herself. She continued the screams and punches until she felt a weight land beside her on the bed and a soft touch to her scarred shoulder.

  
"Zoey... please stop. You're going to hurt yourself," Rythian pleaded. His hand rubbed her shoulder softly and Zoey's punches simmered down into light pats on the mattress.

  
"I- I hurt you. I just- I- can't-" Zoey choked out as her body was still overtaken with the sobs as she tried wiping her nose to breathe better to no avail.

  
The mage took his apprentice's chin in his hand and lifted her face to his. He wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and took her face into both of his hands, her pale skin being engulfed by his own mocha colored flesh. He smiled as her look of surprise made her cheeks flush and her eyes wide.

  
"Zoey. You haven't hurt me. I'm just..." Rythian searched for the right word, "...upset that you wouldn't tell me about these nightmares. Why haven't you said anything? Or come and see me?"

  
Zoey's eyes searched his face for a moment and then cast downwards, her face was full of shame as she tried to find an excuse or reason as to why she hadn't done any of those things he suggested but failed miserably. Her chest felt aflame as she wrangled with the possibility that she may have to tell him the truth. Her stomach twisted at the anxious thought of him having to know the truth behind why she just couldn't have him carry the burden of having to babysit her even further than what he already had. But he ducked his head down so his glowing eyes could look into hers, his damaged mouth curling slightly at one end and the scars turning white at the motion, beckoning for her to say something.

  
She took a deep breath, straightened out her spine and met his gaze.

  
"Because I love you, Rythian," she said firmly as his eyes widened in surprise and his body arched like a cat suddenly startled by a loud sound. She caught a glimpse of pink starting in his cheeks and felt her own face grow hot as the pink grew from his cheeks and connected over the bridge of his nose and appear at the tips of his pointed ears.

  
Rythian couldn't seem to find his voice. His throat made little stammering sounds as he tried to form the words that she was searching for. His heart felt like it would burst from his chest and his face was suffering from a burning sensation. Curse these human traits, he thought to himself as he cleared his throat and tried to regain his senses but when he opened his mouth, his sentence fell before it could begin.

  
"Zoey," he clipped out before he lost the nerve. He said it before. He know he has. He can recall some faint memory of clamoring into a pristine white lab. The clicking of a keyboard and a bright screen... And his breathing steadied. Deep breath in and-

  
"I- I love you... as well," he faltered as Zoey grinned and lunged for his neck, wrapping her arm around and squeezing tightly. The mage froze, his arms unsure to what function they served in this situation but they moved without his permission. One hand wrapped around the small of her back and the other wrapped itself in her hair, letting the tickle of her burgundy strands overtake his senses. Her face was nestled in his chest and he could feel her breaths, hot and moist as she convulsed with soft giggles. He smiled and buried his face deep into the crook where her shoulder and neck met and breathed in her scent.

  
"Zoey?" his voice muffled against her hair.

  
Zoey pulled away and looked up into Rythian's eyes as he spoke.

  
"Please. I don't want you to be in pain. Just... just next time, come to see me. My door is always open to you." he smiled lightly. "You should know that, apprentice."

  
"I know but I just... I don't know... I don't really want to talk about the..." her voice trailed off as she tore her gaze away from her master's eyes.

  
"Fair enough," Rythian spoke as he lifted her face to meet his once again. "How about I just keep you company until you're ready? Sound good?"

  
Zoey vigorously nodded her head. She stopped suddenly and looked at her master with concern spread across her forehead as her eyebrows knitted.

  
"What's wrong?" Rythian asked.

  
"Could we start now?" She asked, her head tilting to one side.

  
Rythian laughed with a deep rumble coming from the back of his throat.   
"Of course. Come here," he said as he offered up his chest as a pillow and his arms as a blanket for his apprentice.

  
Zoey scurried into his comfort and rubbed her face into his chest, breathing deeply and letting the smell of burning leaves and tall oaks assault her nostrils. She sighed and burrowed her head at a more comfortable position as he wrapped in his arms around her in a gentle vice. His hand stroked the back of her head as he leaned his head forward, mindful of her form, and placed a light kiss on top of her rumpled head.

  
Soon, he heard her breathing slow and steadied into faint snores of slumber. He smiled and bowed his head for his lips to meet her ear and whispered softly, "I will always be here for you, Zoey. Always have been. Always will."


End file.
